W
windsurferLA
I've been using the catalog feature of Word97 mail merge to generate
telephone lists of tenants. For years I used a simple dbase formatted
data base and a separate "Query" file until I discovered (after much
work) that Microsoft's updating of the ODBC drivers rendered that
approach inoperable. For the past 18 months, I've been using Word97
with an XL97 data base. The selection and sort criteria seems to be
built into the Word97 link to XL97. I don't have to have a separate
Querry or Q&E File.
MY PROBLEM ... Recently the "catalog" mysteriously stopped including the
last few names in the "catalog." After several hours of detective work I
found the problem, and this post is to alert others to the issue.
At a few places within the "catalog" a series of dashes, i.e. -----,
were substituted for a NAME, so that when the "catalog" was printed,
there would be a visible divider between sections. The query tests the
NAME field, so only records with names in the NAME field are printed. It
appears that Word was treating these records as valid records, but that
the method for accounting for them changed at some recent point in time.
The result was that for every record with "----" in the name field, a
record from the end of the file was ignored.
I have since found that my Excel97 will now not allow a cell to contain
just a string of dashes. (The cure is to place a space before the
dashes.) I SUSPECT THE CHANGE CAME WITH SOME MICROSOFT UPDATE TO
OFFICE. I agree with Microsoft that it is appropriate to prohibit a
mathematically inappropriate series of operators, but it is very
frustrating to have an application mysteriously develop errors.
Bottom line... If you use Word mail merge with Excel, beware of cells
containing dashes.
telephone lists of tenants. For years I used a simple dbase formatted
data base and a separate "Query" file until I discovered (after much
work) that Microsoft's updating of the ODBC drivers rendered that
approach inoperable. For the past 18 months, I've been using Word97
with an XL97 data base. The selection and sort criteria seems to be
built into the Word97 link to XL97. I don't have to have a separate
Querry or Q&E File.
MY PROBLEM ... Recently the "catalog" mysteriously stopped including the
last few names in the "catalog." After several hours of detective work I
found the problem, and this post is to alert others to the issue.
At a few places within the "catalog" a series of dashes, i.e. -----,
were substituted for a NAME, so that when the "catalog" was printed,
there would be a visible divider between sections. The query tests the
NAME field, so only records with names in the NAME field are printed. It
appears that Word was treating these records as valid records, but that
the method for accounting for them changed at some recent point in time.
The result was that for every record with "----" in the name field, a
record from the end of the file was ignored.
I have since found that my Excel97 will now not allow a cell to contain
just a string of dashes. (The cure is to place a space before the
dashes.) I SUSPECT THE CHANGE CAME WITH SOME MICROSOFT UPDATE TO
OFFICE. I agree with Microsoft that it is appropriate to prohibit a
mathematically inappropriate series of operators, but it is very
frustrating to have an application mysteriously develop errors.
Bottom line... If you use Word mail merge with Excel, beware of cells
containing dashes.